Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1920)

Syd Says: For the benefit of those cinemese who want to go abroad — "Stay at home! America s the fihn Utopia!'' Aside from going up in tlie movie world, Sydney Chaplin flies for pleasure and profit — when he's not tending to Brother Charlie's business. IT seemed funny to be talking about devastated France in the Claridge dining-room, that huge, high-ceilinged blackand-gold banquet hall, where you see — instead of the tetrarchs and tribunes and princess-beloveds of ancient times — all the dashing film magnates, all the prettiest chorusgirls — and Ann Pennington. The first thing you noticed about Sydney Chaplin was the remarkable way in which he kept his mind on France. In the midst of all the Babylonian splendor of Broadway, he remembered the Rlarne. "And the most impressive thing I ever saw in my life." he was saying, "was the levelled city of Rheims. at sunset. I happened along by what used to "be the towTi's opera-house. The ceiling was shot away, only the walls remaining. Outside was the old ticket-taker — alone. And a sign read the French equivalent of 'Business as Usual.' The sun set very red and flooded what was left of the old place. It was deathly still, until a little boy came down the street, his heavy shoes making a clumpety-clump that echoed long after he passed. Then, again, everything was still. I stood there a long while. . . ." Chaplin came back to the Claridge, and matter-of-factly ordered French pastry. "I was glad to hit the States again, you know!" He has an infectious grin — it begins in his eyes and travels south until it has everybody grinning, too. "I only took exteriors over there, of course. I'd go out and find a particularly picturesque chateau, and take some long shots of myself with that background. All my close-ups and interiors were made in a California studio. I think the only way in which Europeanmade pictures can definitely be popularized over here is to announce that the Utopia Film Company is presenting a Utopia Production Made in Italy — or France, or England, and featuring the well-known American star. Miss Tessie Jazzfoot. European methods are not our methods, but I think we can put a great variety into our pictures by sending companies across. Switzerland, to me, seems to be the ideal place for picture-making on the Continent. It has everything, and to work there would be an inspiration." Every film actor has, at one time or other, felt the urge to cross the water and make pictures on the other side. Usually it comes when the actor has made a considerable reputation for bravery in facing the camera in his native land, has his own company and press-agent and .Mexandrian ambitions, and accordingly wants to tackle an ocean voyage. French chateaux, London fog, and rotten railroads. All these urges urged themselves into an actual epidemic, and you weren't considered fashionable in film circles unless you admitted tentative plans for a Continental tour. Syd Chaplin, when he joined this gelatine army, went about forming his own plans and sticking to them. First thing the industry knew he'd really crossed, set up his cameras on the battered land of Southern France, posed for his bell-and-howell all over the English country-side, and taken several sidejaunts into Switzerland. How glad he was to return to America — for real film purposes— only Syd can tell you. He completed his five-reel picture in California. It's his first since "The Submarine Pirate," a Keystone of some years ago. In the long meanwhile he has kept religiously off the screen, except for brief and anonymous appearances in his brother Charlie's comedies. He was in "Shoulder .Arms" and Dog's Life." but only his best friends recognized him, and he managed to fool a few of them. While he was acting up in this manner, his identity carefully concealed, he was also managing his brother's business affairs, organizing an air line from Los .Angeles to Catalina Island, and. as a little side-issue, running a factory for the manufacture of misses' frocks. .At one time he had a doll factory. He's a bon vivant business man. Vou will change your opinion of screen comedians in their off-screen aspect, when you meet Syd. He says himself he doesn't know how to go about acting like an actor again — it's been so deuced long since he was one, don't you know. He seems more French than English, but he was born in Cape Town. South .Africa. Hilooks like one of these exhilarating French poets should have looked — and never did. 63